Let's do a proper thread.
Maj7#5 is a Maj7 with a raised 5th, such as Ebmaj7#5 = Eb G B D. Diatonically/Classically the placement is III+ in minor, but I found some interesting uses.
(Well, of course it can be part of a "higher-order" chord like Bbmaj7#5 in C7#11 too!)
C | Ebmaj7#5 | E7 | Am7
I came up with this while thinking of Eb G both going up by a semitone to E G#. However this actually sounded like a dominant resolution. And in fact Ebmaj7#5 can be viewed as a B7#5#9 - which should explain why.
Gm7 | Gmaj7#5 | C
The final cadence in Schmigadoon overture. To emphasize the voicing movement, it may be better notated as Bb/G | B/G | C as in the book. A very dramatic and unorthodox sound to me - definitely handle with care.
Unconventional uses of Maj7#5 chord
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 392 posts since 4 Aug, 2020 from Montreal, Canada
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- KVRist
- 275 posts since 26 Mar, 2017
Can you post the exact voicings for cases you're writing about, obviously including the bass notes?
I'm tempted to take a look at them from perspective of 12-TET intervals and first few peaks of harmonic series.
I'm tempted to take a look at them from perspective of 12-TET intervals and first few peaks of harmonic series.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 392 posts since 4 Aug, 2020 from Montreal, Canada
I think for 1) any voicing will work! Even with some 3rds as bass notes.
But for 2) I think the top voice has to be F-F#-G if I want the bass to "resolve" (G-G-C). The other two options sound weird with this bass. However, Bb-B-C bass or D-D#-E bass sounds cool too!!
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- KVRist
- 275 posts since 26 Mar, 2017
OK, so in latter case I believe this would be the simplest voicing:
...and if played with sine waves up to first five partials (1-1-5-1-3 or 0-0-7-0-4), it'd look something like this:
Apologies for C3 as Middle C there, and "the default DAW piano roll way" of using A# name instead of Bb. It's hard to escape one's native paradigms and app settings
The idea of the latter image is to visualize which partials form (and possibly overlap) as result of chords, and how much the complexity of partials correlates to ideas of dissonance, consonance and resolution. The darker the note, the louder is the frequency peak at that pitch; it approximates what is actually heard closer than when only fundamentals are shown.
In my understanding and experience, human hearing tends to look for consonance in lower partials and allow for more dissonance in upper ones. So the fact that GMaj7#5 there is visually "most complex" in the mid range - with two minor seconds [at lower amplitude] due to upper partials of the G bass note - would correlate with hearing it as most dissonant chord of the three. Whereas C is visually clearest, which supports the idea of "tension" in GMaj7#5 resolving to it.
Not sure if this kind of analysis is of much use to anyone, but for me it was fun to make and think about
Background info: the latter screenshot is basically a "theoretical spectrogram", in which each note represents a sine wave - as if the chords were played with a synth sound made of first five partials of harmonic series.
It was made by capturing 5 screenshots in which MIDI notes of the chord progression were moved up successively so that they correspond to partials; and then layering the screeshots so that each higher partial has 50% less opacity than previous, in "Darken" blending mode.
In other words, 1st partial (fundamental) is at 100% opacity and is displayed in "Normal" mode; all successive ones are in "Darken" mode; 2nd partial is at 50% opacity, 3rd is at 25%, 4th at 12,5% (13%) and 5th at 6,25% (6%).
...and if played with sine waves up to first five partials (1-1-5-1-3 or 0-0-7-0-4), it'd look something like this:
Apologies for C3 as Middle C there, and "the default DAW piano roll way" of using A# name instead of Bb. It's hard to escape one's native paradigms and app settings
The idea of the latter image is to visualize which partials form (and possibly overlap) as result of chords, and how much the complexity of partials correlates to ideas of dissonance, consonance and resolution. The darker the note, the louder is the frequency peak at that pitch; it approximates what is actually heard closer than when only fundamentals are shown.
In my understanding and experience, human hearing tends to look for consonance in lower partials and allow for more dissonance in upper ones. So the fact that GMaj7#5 there is visually "most complex" in the mid range - with two minor seconds [at lower amplitude] due to upper partials of the G bass note - would correlate with hearing it as most dissonant chord of the three. Whereas C is visually clearest, which supports the idea of "tension" in GMaj7#5 resolving to it.
Not sure if this kind of analysis is of much use to anyone, but for me it was fun to make and think about
Background info: the latter screenshot is basically a "theoretical spectrogram", in which each note represents a sine wave - as if the chords were played with a synth sound made of first five partials of harmonic series.
It was made by capturing 5 screenshots in which MIDI notes of the chord progression were moved up successively so that they correspond to partials; and then layering the screeshots so that each higher partial has 50% less opacity than previous, in "Darken" blending mode.
In other words, 1st partial (fundamental) is at 100% opacity and is displayed in "Normal" mode; all successive ones are in "Darken" mode; 2nd partial is at 50% opacity, 3rd is at 25%, 4th at 12,5% (13%) and 5th at 6,25% (6%).
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